Zuko's New Groove
by A Splash of Sunshine
Summary: Vayu, the wind spirit, has grown tired of Zuko's attitude problem. After speaking to Agni, she's granted permission to deal with him! Her solution? Change Zuko into a lemur! To make matters worse, he's stuck this way as long as he keeps his bad attitude.
1. After Episode 13

Everything changed when the fire nation attacked. 

Vayu watched helplessly as her airbenders were wiped out, and Agni cried as the deed was done, holding to his sister for dear life. She disappeared; some say she took the form of an animal native to the nomad dwellings. Others say she wanders endlessly, looking for one last airbender to guard and to guide. The most believed story was that she fought along with the airbenders, and was killed by a fire nation soldier.

Then she returned. Agni had not been expecting the visit; it was sudden, out of the blue. The tears that had stained her brown skin were gone, the mischievous gleam in her eye all the spirits knew so well had returned. She came, pleading to Agni "I fear your son, Zuko may succeed in capturing my last airbender. I have a plan to deal with him, please brother…"

How could he refuse? "I have no say over the fire nation. I left them that day; I lost control of my people as they lose control of their fire."

Vayu waited for the perfect moment, and soon it arrived.

**Chapter 1: After Episode 13.**

"Do not let him get away!" Aiding the Avatar in his escape had proven useful to Zuko after all. Able to locate his previous camp by searching all areas within rage of Zhao's fortress, Zuko had come upon a flash of orange; the Avatar. As always, Zuko's men fell behind and the Prince was left to capture the boy himself.

The Avatar took a sharp left, a maneuver that caused Zuko to fall over in attempt to keep up with him. He growled when he heard a light giggle. The Avatar wanted to laugh at him, fine. Zuko would have that last laugh, another thing to add to the list of 'What I'm going to do when I finally get my hands on that tattooed flying freak'.

He found himself in a clearing, a light wind blowing. Zuko readied himself for anything the Avatar could throw at him. Attack from behind, Zuko would hear it coming and duck just in time. A full frontal assault involving the Avatar and the water tribe girl, BAM! He'd trick them into attacking each other. Even in the water tribe boy commanded the giant bison to land on top of him, Zuko was convinced he would be ready. He ran each scenario through his head.

Of course, he wasn't ready. The Avatar came in at full speed, running in repeated circles around Zuko. By the time the Prince realized he was losing oxygen that not only gave life to his fire, but himself it was too late. He was gagging, suffocating. The whirlwind finally stopped and he fell forward into soft arms. Zuko could feel parts of his body twitching; he was like a fish out of water, still gasping for breath.

All at once he could breathe, the sweet, blessed air had returned to him. He tried to clear his mind; one plus one equals two, the last Avatar before Aang was Roku, the sky is blue… "You'll thank me later." A woman's voice, was it the water tribe girl? Zuko blinked and found himself surrounded by the Avatar and his company. He jolted upright, hissing.

* * *

"Look out, it's feral!" Sokka shouted.

Aang barely caught the lemur, catching the scruff of its neck. "Easy boy, we're not going to hurt you."

Katara watched in amazement as it went limp in Aang's arms. "What do you think happened to his eye?"

"It must've gotten into a fight with a bigger animal." Aang investigated the lemurs face. An exact replica of Momo lay in his arms, save the left side of its face. "How'd you end up all the way in the Earth Kingdom buddy?"

"Is there an air temple near here?" Sokka asked.

Aang thought a moment. "There's the eastern air temple… But I'm not sure if the priestesses had lemurs there."

Sokka blinked. "Priestesses?"

"Yeah. The monks lived in the northern and southern temples, and the priestesses stayed at the western and eastern air temples." Aang explained.

Katara continued to look at the lemur. The scar looked more like a burn… She shuddered, suddenly remembering Zuko. "What are we going to do with it?"

"Well, all lemurs get limp when they're held at the scruff, but we can't do that forever… I guess the best thing to do is let him go and see what happens." Aang rested the lemur on the ground, quickly walking backwards after releasing his grip.

Zuko didn't move. The word 'Lemur' rang in his head over and over again. Scar_, fight, air temple, lemur… Good Agni, I've morphed into an endangered species._

"Is he dead?" Zuko heard the water tribe boy, Sokka, ask.

_That's it, think I'm dead and leave me alone._ Katara gingerly rubbed behind Zuko's burnt and half cut ear. _Oh Agni that feels sooooo good._ Zuko sat up and shook his head. _No, that felt bad. Very very very bad._

"He's alive." Katara said gently. "Aang?"

He sighed. "We leave him. If he follows us, we can keep him, but if he doesn't want to travel with us we can't force him."

Travel, follow… The voice was right. _I **will** be thanking you._ As they took off to mount Appa, Zuko ran and perched himself on Katara's shoulder.

"Look!" Katara said excitedly.

Aang's smile grew. "This is great! Another lemur!"

"Another mouth to feed." Sokka groaned.

Katara ignored her brother and rubbed her nose against Zuko's. "Ready to go to the North Pole little buddy?"

Zuko smirked inside. Mission accomplished. "What are we gonna call him?"

"Zuko." Sokka offered.

"I like Pastry! See, his stomach is a light brown, like a chocolate cake!" Aang replied.

Zuko rolled his eyes. "We're not calling him Zuko, that's not nice." Katara commented.

"Well, what do you suggest?"

She shrugged. "Zuzu?"

Zuko paled. Cuddling he could deal with, the water tribe peasants he could tolerate, heck, he'd even accept the name Pastry! But for the love of Agni… _Why'd they have to pick Zuzu?_

Vayu smiled from her hiding place. "So it begins."

* * *

Believe it or not, there is a time line. This is going to take place shortly after episode 13 through a couple days past episode 16. Episode 14 (The Fortuneteller), 15 (Bato of the Water tribe) and 16 (The Deserter) will be presented in the same way, only with a Zuko lemur.

And the bit about the Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern Air Temples... All true. That's why we haven't seen any lady airbenders... yet.

Updates will be… varied. I may have two chapters up within two days; sometimes it will take a week to get one chapter up. Either way, I thank you for reading and apologize in advanced.

**Avatar: The Last Airbender © Nickelodeon 2005**

p.s. I came up with Zuzu before episode 2.01. Talk about your coincidences.


	2. Before Episode 14

Chapter 2: Before Episode 14 

It had only been one day, and already Zuko was ready to rip his brains from his nose, take his intestines and wrap them around his neck, hang himself and drink lava while juggling explosives.

It had all been a lie. The cunning strategy Aang had created to avoid being caught by Zuko; dumb luck. At this point and time, Katara and Sokka are arguing about which way is NORTH (They're both wrong by the way.) while Aang is patiently waiting to find a good place to cut in. "You couldn't find North if the sun set!"

That had been the place. "Sokka! Katara!" Zuko covered his ears. As loud as the siblings had been, the Avatar managed to be louder. "We all overslept, so we can't find north; that's not a big deal. Katara, you and I can practice waterbending using the scroll and Sokka can look for food for when the sun starts to set."

"Yes Aang." Katara and Sokka apologized.

Zuko watched with minor interest as Katara and Aang prepared for their lesson. _I know they're going north. I have to find a way to become human again so I can get ahead of them and set a trap._ Yes, get as far north as possible and set a trap. So how do you capture a giant flying cow, a lemur, a master airbender and two water tribe brats? Zuko was wondering the very same thing.

"Well, what if we try this?" Aang took a step forward, turning on his right leg, stomped his left foot onto the ground and pushed both arms forward. A stream of water took off from beside him into the air.

"That was great Aang!" Zuko had to agree. It seemed familiar too…

"Well… It's a move I saw Zuko do back in the South Pole." Zuko's jaw dropped. "Do you remember that huge fire blast that came at us when we were taking off on Appa; the one I was able to crash into the iceberg? I saw what Zuko and the old guy did just before then and I thought it looked cool. I'm able to use airbending with that move, so I thought 'why not try waterbending?'."

Katara put her hand on Aang's shoulder. "Great job Aang, that was really smart of you. Let's see if we can do it together and make a tidal wave."

Aang nodded quickly, as if Katara would not notice the blush if he kept his head moving_. I've inadvertently taught the Avatar firebending._ This was a big problem. What if Aang decided to see if he could use firebending simply by imitating Zuko? It was bad enough to be beaten with airbending… Zuko did not want to lose to the Avatar in an Agni Kai. _I have to become human again, before it's too late._

* * *

The sun began to set and they were off again. Aang suggested landing before the sun was completely gone, so they could draw an arrow pointing in the correct direction._ Big duh there._ Zuko thought. When they did land, they were nowhere near the sea.

"It's easier to avoid Zuko if we travel inland. His boats can go on streams, but not all streams were connected." Sokka said.

_Water tribe boy has some intellect after all._ Thought Zuko, still, he had to lure them away from inland. _I'll have the arrow point east once they're all asleep._ Too bad Zuko was once again, unprepared.

"C'mon Zuzu, sleep with me boy." Zuko's back arched and his fur stood on end. The Avatar was making cooing noises, using his hand to motion Zuko to come over to him.

_No._ Zuko backed himself to a large bolder. _No!_ It wasn't any use, Zuko was yelling in his head as loud as he could, but Aang just scooted closer, thinking Zuko was playing with him. What was a scared 16-year-old stuck in a lemur's body to do? Run away.

He was quicker then he thought he'd be, Zuko had to admit. For only having a day to adjust to a lemurs body, he was doing very well. He ran in-between the Avatars legs, climbed up Sokka's back, jumped from his head to a tree and he was about to shimmy up when Katara grabbed the scruff of his neck. "Aang, stop teasing him. Besides, you have Momo. I'll sleep with Zuzu."

Zuko couldn't help but think that sounded dirtier than intended.

* * *

The girl just couldn't let go. Whether she had been asleep for minutes or hours, Zuko couldn't tell. It didn't matter, it felt like forever. To make matters worse, she had a strong grip on him. No wonder the other lemur looked at me sympathetically. Zuko thought. 

With much effort, he was able to escape her strong embrace. Maybe he would have enjoyed it more if he had been human… And she had been a member of the Fire Nation Royal Court. Zuko was no more than a foot away from the dirt drawn arrow when he heard giggling. That same giggling from the other day.

"Are you enjoying yourself Prince Zuko?" Zuko wondered how he could have ever mistaken this girl for the Avatar. True, she was wearing orange, a lot of orange, but she was in a long flowing dress and she had hair. Her hair was the weird part; it was a soft cream color, up in two high buns. Her bangs framed her dark colored face, almost covering her green olive eyes.

A realization hit Zuko. "You did this to me!"

Another realization hit Zuko. He was speaking. Not thinking, speaking. He looked at his hands. Human hands, human glowing hands. He jumped back in shock, and the girls face stayed even. "Are you talking about being all glowy," She wiggled her fingers, as if to emphasize the point. "Or about being a lemur? I did do both, but specifics are still nice."

"You…. You witch!" Zuko yelled. Being all 'glowy', as she had put it, didn't matter- Well… It did matter, but not as much as having to 'hang out' with the Avatar and his two stooges all day. What was I saying? In any event, Zuko is mad and is going to start yelling. "You're a witch! I demand as Prince of the Fire Nation that you undo this spell!"

"You mean **Banished **Prince of the Fire Nation." Zuko shook in anger. Now was so not the time to be reminded of his banishment. "And if we're giving demands based on rank, I demand, as the Air Spirit, that you stop chasing my Avatar!"

She was joking. She had to be joking. "Or I'm dreaming." Zuko said. "This is because Uncle made me eat some of those abalone oysters. I told him I didn't want any, but no! Prince Zuko, they're so delectable." As he said the last line, he sighed, holding his hands to the right side of his face, deepening his voice to imitate Iroh.

"You're not dreaming, and I'm not joking." She poked Zuko's chest. "I'm tired of you chasing my airbender, tired of you trying to please your father and I am tired of your bad attitude! As of right now, you will leave Aang, Katara and Sokka alone." Her voice rose with every word, and Zuko was sure that the others would awaken.

"No." Zuko stopped shaking, stopped being angry. He was calm, collected and standing his ground. "I will not stop chasing the Avatar, I will not stop trying to please my father and I will not change my 'bad attitude'."

She crossed her arms, eyes narrowing. "Then you have fun being a pet Zuzu, because until you do change you're stuck like this."

* * *

..Hey! That was a cliffhanger! Cool. Sorry about the late update, but as I warned you in chapter one; Updates will be varied. 

Note to the administrators of **THIS IS NOT INTERACTION WITH THE READERS.** I reply to every review, and I do receive reviews from those without accounts. As a result, I will be replying at the end of the chapters. Thank you.

**REVIEWS**

Deamon Fire;  
I'm glad you enjoyed my fanfic. Awesome, I'm part of a cult! …I predict that I will become the ruler… :whistle:

Guy too lazy to log in;  
I have to ask, when you say "guy", do you really mean MALE? If so, I congratulate you! Hooray for male avatards!

To answer your question; would you ever expect to find a male airbender at a female airbending temple? I know I wouldn't! Although this does sound like a rumor, I read this in an interview with the creators.

Avatar: The Last Airbender © Nickelodeon 2005


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